World
Welterweight Champion in 1915 and 1916 and from 1917 to
1919,
Ted “Kid” Lewis was nicknamed the “Aldgate
Sphinx.” He fought in six different divisions,
at weights from 116 to 166 pounds, during his 20-year
career.

Lewis became England’s youngest boxing champion
in October 1913, when he won the British Featherweight
title
at the age of 17. Just a few months later, in February
1914, he captured the European Featherweight crown.

When Lewis won a 12-round decision over World Welterweight
Champion Jack Britton in Boston on August 31, 1915,
The Kid became the first Englishman to win a world
boxing title in the United States. Lewis and the American
Britton were to fight 20 times between 1915 and 1921, with
Lewis losing the title to Britton in 1916, regaining
it the next year, and losing it for the final time in March
1919.

Lewis relinquished his claim to the British Empire and
European Welterweight titles in December 1920. In
June 1921, he won the British Middleweight crown, and
less than four months later, the European Middleweight
title.
In May 1922, Lewis was stopped by Georges Carpentier
for the World Light-Heavyweight championship, but in
mid-June
of
the same year he KO’d Frankie Burns to win the
Empire Middleweight title. Lewis lost the last of his
European
boxing crowns in November 1924.

In 1913, Kid Lewis was the first boxer to use a protective
mouthpiece. It was designed for him by his dentist, Jack
Marks, himself a former fighter. The mouthpiece soon
became—and
continues to be—standard equipment in the sport
of boxing.